We started 2011 by returning to San Antonio for three weeks primarily to recover the mission photographs I had lost from our pervious visit but also to get someplace warm. We made a day visit to New Braunfels and then stayed another two weeks in Austin before heading north for more adventures.
When we originally started planning our retirement travels, rather than an RV we purchased a utility trailer within the towing capacity of our suv and planned to primarily tent camp. While we upgraded to a pickup to travel we already had this trailer and the light weight shelving I had installed did not hold up well to the potholes. Heavier shelving and general accumulation was starting to overload the 3500 pound axle with the torsion springs frequently bottomed out on the rough roads. I finally found that the Southwest Wheel franchise in Lubbock, Texas would install a 4200 pound axle at a reasonable price. Of course this required one 1000 plus mile round trip from dad in Shreveport, Louisana for them to determine the parts required, getting back for dad's 90th birthday, and another 500 mile trip back to have it installed.
So making a virtue out of necessity we headed off to Lubbock, Texas with a two night stop in Benbrook, Texas to make the opportunity to visit both the Botanic Garden and Japanese Garden in Fort Worth. Not too far west of DFW we started getting into the real Texas badlands.
On the way back to dad's golf tournament and birthday we took the southern route through Abilene, Texas for three nights and then most of a week in Waco, Texas which was just overloaded with wildflowers like these on the way. Then it was a couple nights in Lufkin before returning to Shreveport, Louisana for the exhausting rounds of dad's activities.
After all the celebrations we headed back to Lubbock, Texas to have the trailer axle replaced with an overnight in Abilene, Texas where I think these pictures were taken. The two oil pumps were actually working although at slightly different rates so it was only occasionaly they synchronized to the kissing position here. After getting the trailer axle replaced in only one day we headed north through Amarillo, Texas and on to Oklahoma and Kansas on our was back to doctors in Columbus, Ohio after taking a month to explore the Kansas City Fountains.
One of the major issues that developed visiting John's dad in Shreveport, Louisana was problems with our laptop computer that was our primary internet link. The closest repair center was on the north side of Houston, Texas where we dropped it off and then stayed for a few days to visit John's sister while they did the repairs. We then spent over two months in the Dallas Fort Worth area with frequent trips back to Shreveport, Louisana to help dad with various issues. Then it was back through for another short visit with my sister before heading back to Shreveport, Louisana and a neice's wedding.
One of our excursions well outside the actual Dallas Fort Worth megolopolis was here at Weatherford, Texas with this brilliant white and red court house. One of the buildings surrounding the court house square was this antique that just impressed me by it's age and style.
This huge sprawling house was actually in the southeast of Dallas on our way to the Cedar Ridge Preserve. It did not seem to fit cleanly into the Dallas Fort Worth page since we saw hundreds of these almost every where we went. There are smaller houses in the older areas and a lot of apartments, but in the newer developments this appears to be the standard family house with everyone trying to figure out who are the Joneses to keep up with.
We started out 2008 in Austin but left for Shreveport and several loops in Louisiana before heading north to friends and doctors in Columbus, Ohio. After getting dad's taxes filed in early April we headed west across Texas for a grand western loop to see the grandkids in Washington and a lot of places along the way.
Our first stop was Dallas Fort Worth to drop off a picture dad wanted to give to a cousin. I have put the pictures from the Fort Worth Botanic and Fort Worth Japanese gardens on these separate pages. From there I am dealing with the case of the missing electrons. All of the pictures I took in western Texas have evaporated into the ether. Later we devoted most of one summer to touring western Texas and getting new pictures but 2008 is only in memory.
In 2007 we made several loops into Texas both to take a break from the many things we had to setup with my dad in Shreveport, Louisana and because we had purchased a Texas State Park pass when our friend Chris took us to McKenney Fall's SP in Austin. The pass gave us half price camping and free admission to as many parks as we could get to in one year.
I mentioned before that we like nice bugs. Here is just one on our tent at Villiage Creek SP just outside Lumberton Texas. One of the nice things here was to just sit back and relax watching the birds and the bugs. It was still cool enough that the bad bugs stayed away.
While hurricane Katrina got most of the publicity, eastern Texas was actually hit much harder by Rita. Basically after landfall it ran up the border between Texas and Louisiana and then the back side smashed up anything the front side missed. These hurricanes occurred in 2005 but huge damage still remained and all the parks still had sections closed due to damage that could not be repaired in a declining economy.
While I continued to study photography styles and techniques I came across some composites of both light houses and water towers so I thought I would try a few. I've found most of the time it is difficult to get a picture that is not looking straight up or blocked by buildings or wires. I continue to collect photographs of water towers when I get a chance at an interesting one and some day I might even get enough to create a nice poster.
Texas is such a large state that it frequently offers strange contrasts. In Austin the whole downtown area was wired for wifi and the library gave me a 30 day membership so I could access theirs with my laptop. Trying to find access in Beaumont I finally stopped at the main public library and asked the reference librarian if they had wifi available. She gave me a strange look and asked Why Who?
. This graphically reflects the problems the school board faces in providing a quality education when the local paper reported they needed $2 billion just to bring the buildings up to code, forget about books, computers, and other requirements for actually teaching. Unfortunately this problem is not unique to Beaumont which did have a very nice waterfront park with another little bird trying to be friendly.
All of the above finishes up a busy January in Texas and we moved on to a photography seminar in Auburn, Alabama and supporting the doctors again in Columbus, Ohio before getting back to Shreveport, Louisiana to help dad with his taxes. After all that we really needed the two weeks in April at Martin Dies SP exploring the Big Thicket area of eastern Texas. Just one of the sights was this little firefighter located outside the station in Jasper, Texas about 20 miles east of the park.
I have put most of our December explorations of Texas into special pages like First Night in Austin; San Antonio which is a bust since I somehow lost all the pictures I took of the missions; Corpus Christi; and Houston. On one of our excursions from Austin we found this dragon lounging the a field along Route 183 near Lampass. I'm sure he is probable friendly but we were respectful and just took pictures from the road.
After almost a month in Shreveport, Louisiana with John's dad we headed off to Texas and Christmas in Corpus Christi which I've now split out to it's own page.. Stopping for lunch in El Campo these ducks were enjoying the restaurant pond which was primarily for cleaning crawfish. Exposing the mudbugs to fresh clean water for a few days substantially improves the flavor and the price.
From Corpus Christi it was on to Austin with obviously very little to report in 2006. Austin has a lot of very fine parks like St Edwards here with the cliff reflecting off the still waters. The absolute best part of Austin in 2006 was the First Night parade. We spent a lot of time in Austin in later years and I will break these reports out into a separate page as I get to them.